Court Finds Case was "Manufactured by plaintiffs' counsel"

SAN RAMON, Calif., Aug. 7, 2007 -- On August 3, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California threw out complaints against Chevron Corporation filed on behalf of three Ecuadorians, finding that the plaintiffs fabricated their claims that they or their relative had cancer caused by the former operations of a Chevron subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Company, in Ecuador.

The three plaintiffs -- Gloria Chamba, Luisa Gonzales and Gonzales's husband, Nixon Rodriguez Crespo -- were among a group of seven Ecuadorians who brought personal injury claims against Chevron. According to the lawsuits filed against Chevron, Ms. Chamba claimed that her son was diagnosed with leukemia, Ms. Gonzales claimed to have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and Mr. Crespo's claim was for "loss of consortium" related to his wife's cancer claim.

In a concise written decision, Judge William Alsup dismissed the personal injury claims by the three plaintiffs finding that the two women had admitted during cross-examination at sworn depositions that their cancer claims were false, and thus Mr. Crespo's claim was also without merit. The Court quoted Ms. Chamba's testimony that her son had never been diagnosed with cancer and that she had not authorized her lawyers to sue for cancer. The Court also quoted Ms. Gonzales' testimony that she falsely alleged she had been diagnosed with cancer because she thought "it would help her case."

In granting Chevron's motion for summary judgment and to dismiss as a sanction for fraud on the court, Judge Alsup delivered a sharp rebuke to the lawyers who brought the complaints against Chevron: "This is not the first evidence of possible misconduct by plaintiffs' counsel in this case. It is clear to the Court that this case was manufactured by plaintiffs' counsel for reasons other than to seek a recovery on these plaintiffs' behalf. This litigation is likely a smaller piece of some larger scheme against defendants." Chevron continues to believe that the claims of the other plaintiffs are without merit and will address them in a subsequent motion.

The lawsuit was first filed against Chevron in April, 2006, by attorneys Cristobal Bonifaz of Amherst, Massachusetts, and Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund. Bonifaz was the sponsor of the Ecuador environmental litigation brought against Texaco Inc. in 1993 (ultimately dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit in 2002), and the current lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, though he is no longer affiliated with that litigation. Collingsworth has previously represented the Ecuador state oil company in its defense of an arbitration claim brought by Chevron.